Little Willie Went Home

Little Willie went home, and this is what I'm left with. Well, this and the strip of paint missing from my bedroom wall. Silly boy. I have to admit, I was relieved when he vacated the premises, but I miss the little booger.

Ches has been relishing all of her toys and attention. She even took advantage of the peace today and snuck in a nap on the bed. I can tell she's slightly misses him, but I'm thinking she's more relieved than anyone that Wee Willie is gone.

In his absence I had a laundry list of items planned to accomplish today. And then I woke with a migraine. Instead of trying to fight it I just flopped on the couch, and eventually stumbled back to bed to fight the good fight. Once the nausea left, and the stabbing pain dulled ever-so-slightly I got my behind out of bed and did minimal work.

I started by soaking beans for homemade ham and bean soup. I have to say it turned out to be pretty tasty. Then I hacked up the rest of the ham and froze it, and that soup bone for another batch of something. Then I went outside and got rid of the rest of Willie's remnants. Picked up some litter from the driveway left by the previous tenant.

Tomorrow we are forecasted temperatures in the 50's and I'm planning to make the best of it. I think we'll celebrate the spring weather with a nice walk, and perhaps some fetch in the yard. Right now we have about 18 hours of sunlight. It's getting light about 5 a.m. and staying light until about 11 p.m.

Last week I ordered some lined drapes for the rest of the house. The sheers just weren't helping with the sleep factor. So they have arrived, and I plan to get the rest of them up tomorrow as well. Sounds like I'll have a very busy day! Have a happy day!

Fun-filled Weekend

Saturday morning started out not-so-great. Nothing major, my patience with the pups was just wearing thin. And, I was tired of being stuck in the house. When Brent got home we decided to flee this popsicle stand and get out of town to do a little hiking/exploring. Since Willie is not-so-keen on traveling via vehicle quite yet, Ches got to sit in the passenger seat, and she thought she was super special. Which she is.

This is Donnelly Dome. Brent plans to reach the top of this mountain some time this summer. It's larger than it looks, I promise. Much larger. Since there is still snow, we decided to just visit some of the foot paths at the bottom of the Dome.

We decided to check out Donnelly Creek Recreation area to see how much snow had melted, and how deep the creek was. It was nice walking but there wasn't a lot of challenge, or much to see. We did see this cute little cabin. It is just big enough for a stove and a full-size bed. I think we might put one out back for a guest house. Wanna come visit? :)

This is part of Donnelly Creek. It still has some ice, but the water was flowing pretty good in the area closest to the road. Ooh, not long now...

This is the area where we were actually walking. It was pretty easy going, except for the snow. It's patchy, but the areas that have snow are still deep in some spots. It was a nice hike, we saw a hare, lots of moose nuggets on which Willie made himself a snack, and at the end as we were leaving we spotted a very fresh dropping of bear scat. Good thing we were heading out. It was a beautiful day, the temp hovered around 46 degrees and as you can see the sun was magnificent. Ooh, spring in Alaska is nice...so far.

As we were heading back to Delta we came upon this herd of caribou. They have the goofiest run, you really have to see it to appreciate it, but it's hilarious. There were about a dozen, but these are the only animals that stuck out in the open, the rest headed for the trees. So I snapped a few pics of them. They are very pretty animals.

As you can see here Willie was beat! That was a lot of hiking for that little guy. He crashed on the floor behind the drivers seat and slept the whole way home. A very peaceful ride home.

Sunday morning we woke to another nice day. The temps were slightly lower in the low 40's. We had planned to drive to a lake outside of Delta towards Tok but since Willie kept us up most of the night, and isn't the world's best traveler we decided to head out to the same area we were on Saturday and check out a couple other paths.

We hit our first path which led to a lake that Brent was determined to see. We came upon a couple of drop offs early on and I was ready to throw in the towel, but Brent was not. So we stumbled around until we found a walkable path downward.

Just as we hit a field near the lake Brent stopped short and told me to back up slowly. I followed his orders which staring straight into the face of a big ole moose watching from a stand of trees about 65 yards from us. I backed up slowly, as Brent tried to reign in the pooches as we continued to back up the path. Finally the moose retreated and continued to watch us from a safe distance until we looked up and he was gone. Thank goodness.

With that over we decided to forego our trip to the lake, as that was the direction that Mr. Moose had headed off in. So we decided to wander around the field. As we were crossing a large patch of snow we noticed some very large, very fresh bear prints. And we high tailed it back to the car.

On our new way up the hill we let the kids root around in a couple of caribou carcasses, which Willie thought was the best thing ever. Ches was rather uninterested, and just continued to sniff the ground in hopes of a hare to chase.

After we left the first path we headed up to a nice, leisurely trail which had a lot of snow. We walked up and down the rolling hills, and the pups loved it. LOVED it. All in all a nice day. On our way home we stopped to fill on gas and pick up fixings for dinner at the IGA.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on ESPN, reading The Shell Seekers, and periodically napping. A very good day indeed.

Have a happy day!

Spring Cleaning

I got mail! I just love getting mail. Especially packages. Mom sent us the nicest Easter package. It arrived on Monday, but seeing as Brent works past post office hours I wasn't able to pick it up until yesterday. As I sat in the post office parking lot trying to get the package open despite the 785 layers of tape, Ches licked the box in anticipation, and the lady in the vehicle next to us got a good laugh at the sight of us. There was something for each of us. And we were all thrilled!

This guy was my favorite. He squawks! And he comes complete with fruity eggs shoved in his bum. :) Ches loves him, Willie is terrified of him, and it was a fun treat, amongst the chocolate and pretty stuff. Thanks Mom & Dad!!

Brent was in Fairbanks Saturday morning for continuing education class so the kids and I just chilled around the house. Here Willie is looking on because I'm pretty sure Ches stole his rawhide chew. Life is so unfair when you're little. Ha!

Saturday morning was beautiful so I started out doing a little spring cleaning. Later in the afternoon we took a trip South of town to do some hiking, and I'll tell you about that in the next post. All in all, a good start to a great weekend!

Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun...

Before I start I want to say that everyone here is fine. No dead puppies. But that might only be because they're not much fun...

My brothers, uncle, cousins and I attended bible at Camp Indianhead. We had a camp counselor who introduced us to the awful, morbid, hilarious song about dead puppies. Yes, at bible camp. Ha. It is one of my favorite memories, and I wish I could remember the words. It was hilarious.

My day started out in usual fashion. We had trips to the woods for the dogs to do their duty. Then feeding time at the zoo with the normal chasing, shooing, growling and gulping of food. After all of that hoopla, the frozen water, and getting Brent off to work, I managed to sneak back to bed for a couple more winks of sleep. And man, someone is glad that I did.

I started the day thinking that it was a beautiful day in the low-mid 40's. In the late morning the sun came out and it was glorious. I tied Willie out in the front yard, and had Ches in the yard taking advantage of the quiet farm, and the sunny day. I decided since Willie had gotten stuck under the porch I would bring them in for a little break.

Willie comes in and was rambunctious. He loves to run around the couch. Around one end and under the round table on the other end. The table with the floor length cloth that he always gets stuck in. As he makes the corner for the second time I see him pull the cloth, causing the table to wobble, spilling my Diet Coke all over. Soda goes every where. Ev. Ery. Where. Insane.

I strip the cloth off, grab a few more items and head to the laundry room. In the process I let Ches out to run in the yard, sniffing and exploring. When I come in I decide to let Willie out to play again. I head to make the bed and hear a vehicle outside. As the van pulls up I step out onto the porch to see what they need. The driver steps out asking my name, getting Ches's attention as she bounds toward him barking like a raving lunatic, he lunges for the truck, and I try to wrangle her back inside. Once Ches was securely inside, he brings me my package, I sign in someone else's scribble, and we hear the most desperate yelping and yipping from under the porch. Willie is stuck. Again. 10 minutes later red-faced we're all inside and ready for a nap.

A little later in the afternoon I decide to let them out again. I go about my business, opening windows, letting in the fresh air and I realize that I cannot see Ches. So I go outside, notice Willie all tangled up, bring him in and he dashes for the back bedroom. I think to myself, "hmmm, that's odd." I go back out to get Ches and as she comes toward me there is the most horrid smell. POOP. Good heavens, she is covered. As I head in to grab paper towels to hook her to the tie out it hits me that somewhere hiding in my house is a mini-me also covered in poop. Oh. My. Heavens.

After much yelling, some gagging, crying (done by me) and a lot of shampoo they are clean and go into hiding. It was possibly the quietest afternoon I have had. I washed everything. Three times. And it still stinks like poop. I am done with poop. Seriously.

When Brent got home I told him the story and he laughed himself silly. Nice Honey. Next time I think I'll save bath time for him... lol.

This is Ches in hiding. I was drying her off and told her to go lay down. She did. And she didn't move for hours. At least she listens...

This is Willie thinking I can't see him. Even he was smart enough to hide in the corner, far away from me. (See that mark on the wall above him, that's where he gnawed the paint off the wall.)

On another note, this is a lovely spring sunset. There is water, orangy-red water, everywhere. I'm assuming it's the minerals (?) but the water runs red in these ditches. Since the ground is still frozen it all sits on top causing much mud and chaos. We will likely need our four-wheel drive to get in to the driveway by the end of the weekend.

Hope you are enjoying spring!

Have a happy day!

Spring is Springing!

Spring is springing! I would say that it has sprung, but I'm not quite sure that winter won't sneak back up on us and zing us one last time. I will say, however, that despite today's gray skies, the past few days have been delightful. The temps have been hanging out around the 40's and we hear a constant drip, drip, drip. Delightful. We still have not managed to escape the frozen well pump though. It's a mystery to all...hopefully we'll be rid of that nuisance soon.Buddie has taken up residence at the Squirrel Buffet that Brent brought to our backyard. I have had no current incidences of chasing little Buddie from the porch, and while it's for the best, I miss the little percocious little girl. I would snap a pic of Willie's buffet, but I'll save you all that disgusting photo. The little varmint kept me up for most of the night with the runs. I was not happy about 2:30 a.m. and I was flabbergasted as to what he may have gotten into.

This evening when Brent and I took him out to play the little scamp ran from pile of poo to pile of poo devouring his weight in feces. UGH. Seriously, I do not have a weak stomach, but I about lost it. So, now I don't know what I'm going to do to keep him out of the poo piles. We live on a farm for pete's sake! Poo is everywhere. Everywhere.

As you can tell by the pics he's growing like a weed. He's getting big and it's fun to watch him mimic Ches and her ways. Here they are searching out the next big thing in spring time mining. I just hope it's not more poop. Good gravy! What have I gotten myself into?

And here's that cute little baby face. Awwww. Today I scolded him for something, I cannot recall his every transgression, there are a lot of them, so I shooed him. He rebels by jumping up on the spare bedroom door and busting in. Apparently I didn't hear him whine to get out, so he pulled my jacket off the rack behind the door and decided to take a nap.

So, my day is coming to an end. I need to pack a ham sandwich for Brent's lunch tomorrow. He has a big day and has to be to work by 4:30 a.m. Since I am not in the business of getting up at 3:30 I'm packing it tonight, and then hitting the hay for a much needed siesta.

Hope you are warm in your world!

Happy (almost) Spring from Alaska!

GEESE!

It has been beautiful here in the land of the (upcoming) Midnight Sun! It has bobbled around the 40 degree mark for nearly a whole week, and we are losing snow like crazy! This of course makes the parking lots super slickery with the added melt, but it's worth it. I should really dig out Brent's extra pair of Yak Trax for walking the Poop Troop. But I don't know where they are, and frankly the effort doesn't seem necessary.

We have been taking the kids out back and running them senseless in an effort to get a full night's sleep. This worked on Wednesday night, but not last night. I am convinced that Willie must have been too excited about his gross (and disgusting) find in the woods. He was thrilled so we let him drag it around. In his defense it is just a grouping of feathers, but I still can't make myself look at it. He, is awfully proud, as you can tell here.

My friend Susan told me that she had heard that there were geese in our area, and that it was the first sign of Spring. Since this is my first Alaskan spring, I will take her good information. And this morning, guess what I saw? As I stepped out to let the kids out, we all stopped at the tell tale calls of the geese. Ches got super excited and took off bounding across the hay field, I think she thought I was going to shoot one, and Willie was flabbergasted, but the sight was great!


Today I had my friend Mary Lou over for lunch. I made some soup, salad and sandwiches. It was simple but good, and the company was excellent. While I was preparing for her visit I decided to run the vacuum quick. I normally vacuum while Brent takes the kids out to play, but since I was alone I had to vacuum while they were inside. Ches cowered on the couch hoping that I wouldn't suck her up, and Willie hid under the bed. When it came time to vacuum the bedroom I ran up the first side and heard him scrambling to the other side, pretty soon his little ebony head popped up and he whimpered. I turned the machine off, lifted him onto the bed, and started on my way. The poor little thing was huddled between the pillows shaking like a leaf during a hurricane. Poor baby. So of course I had to cuddle him a little bit, and then he bit my nose. Ingrate!

After dinner this evening Brent, Ches and I took a drive down Main Street U.S.A. to check out the scenery. Willie stayed home as he isn't a huge fan of riding in cars, so we left him home. When we returned we played and played and tried to avoid his piranha-like teeth. Eventually he pooped out and found a nice, comfy spot on Brent's lap to snuggle.

Happy Spring from the Kings!

New Things

One thing nice about moving to a new state, and experiencing a new season, is seeing new birds, plants and animals. This is a gray jay. They are quite large, and while I didn't photograph this one, we have one that was checking out our garbage can and an old piece of pizza.

I took out the garbage yesterday a.m. with Rambunctious Willie and Timid Ches to discover after slipping, tripping and swearing that I had forgotten the lighter in the house. When I returned with the lighter I saw Jay sitting on the edge of my can munching on pizza. So I left the garbage for a little bit so he could enjoy the buffet and I could get a picture. But I didn't manage to procure one.

In other news it has been 7 days since Willie's arrival. We're having a lot of fun with him, but he is a lot more work than Ches. A lot more. He and Ches play quite a bit, when she isn't tired of his nipping, and it's fun to watch him mimic Ches. He's gotten smart to the treat jar and now everytime he comes in he thinks he needs treats. Little booger.

This morning we woke at 4:30 a.m. to no water. Again. I called the neighbors to thaw it at 5:30
so that the neighbors might have water, but they didn't arrive until after 7 a.m. It's frustrating. It's on the list of things that need to be discussed shortly.

Other than that we've been enjoying the warmer weather. It's been about 40 degrees and we are definitely losing snow. However, our driveway has become a skating rink and it's kind of funny to watch Willie launch himself off the deck and slide for a few feet when he has to go out.

With the warmer weather we are definitely noticing more songbirds and finches. Hopefully they'll come closer in coming weeks so we can snap some pics of them. There certainly seem to be a lot of varieties. When I googled birds of Alaska I noticed that they have the red wing black bird here. I really liked them growing up so I'm anxious to see if they are this far North.

We are also having about 16 hours of light now. When I peaked out the window at 10:14 last night I could see the trees across the field. So that is wonderful. The moon lately has been nearly full, and a bright orange ball in the sky.

Hope you are all warm and enjoying Spring! Have a happy day!

Introducing Willie

Meet Willie. Or, Naughty Willie. He's cute, but he's naughty. Brent calls him the Tazmanian Devil. He runs around with his mouth open waiting to slit you with his razor sharp teeth. He's sweet...when he's sleeping, and I'm definitely not used to having a baby in the house. Now that we're on Day 5 of Willie's stay in our home we're settling in, and I think we've all adjusted. Maybe.

This is a picture of Tanya and I. It was taken by Alyssa, and since it was a half way decent picture of me I decided to plop it on here. Tanya planned a scavenger hunt for their family that brought them from their home in North Pole to Delta Junction to visit us. They scoped out our home, visited the chickens and other farmyard animals, and then we helped them complete the rest of their hunt and dined with them at the Buffalo Center Diner in town. It was a great day full of noise, chaos and fun! The dogs both loved all of the attention and we all slept well last night.

Willie's visit started out rocky, but if you look closely you can see that Willie is snuggled right up to her. The little white spot on her abdomen is Willie, upside down and sleeping soundly.

Today we decided to take advantage of the glorious Alaska sunshine. It was 30 degrees in Delta today, but the sun was high and warm!! I actually took off my jacket for the last portion of our hike. Our only goal for the day was to wear little Willie out! I think we've succeeded, perhaps? The little guy in the picture above is (I believe) a pine squirrel. He was giving us heck for interrupting his peaceful day. Perched high in the tree of course.

The photos above and below are of the Clearwater River. The water was beautiful, and cold. Ches and Willie had fun sampling some of this sparkling Alaska water. And the scenery's not bad either.

Tomorrow begins another week. Brent is off so I think we'll head to Fairbanks sometime mid-morning. Hoping you are all warm and toasty!! Enjoy your spring!

On another note I wanted to wish Jana a very Happy 21st Birthday!! She celebrated her big day yesterday with her family and friends!! Hope your day was super special!

Wee Willie

I would love to post pics of little Willie. But have you ever tried taking pictures of a very exuberant black puppy?? Despite my numerous attempts, I have failed, and failed, and failed. You'll just have to trust me on this one. He is REALLY cute. And really naughty.

Last night was difficult. However, over time, and a rescue call from my younger brother Kyle, we have been having much success with each passing hour. I have taken my cues from Ches and let her put over-excited Willie in his place a time or two. And now he is much calmer, and doesn't jump in her face as much anymore.

We took three lengthy walks today to try to tire him out, and keep Ches happy. The first walk was a disaster. Willie weaving in between my legs and Chessa's. Ice. Passing cars. And Karla flat on her face on the pavement. I nearly punctured a hole in the bear spray which being safely tucked away in my hoodie pocket with me holding on to two uncooperative dogs would have led to all three of us being eaten by a bear. But I had it. I have a skinned up elbow and a bruised ego to show for it. But hey, at least I didn't break an arm. Again.

The water froze again today. I. Give. Up. It's getting really frustrating, and while I'm trying to be patient, I'm finding it increasingly difficult. But we're all alive. We have had no more potty issues in the house, and I am listening to Wee Willie sigh in his sleep. Have I mentioned how cute he is? And how much work he is? I had forgotten. There are many nice things about adopting an older dog. But I think we got really lucky with out sweet Chessa girl.

Have a happy day!